BEMBO, Pietro.
De gliasolani di M. Pietro Bembo nequali - BEMBO, Pietro - 1530. [1229949]Venice: per Giouanantonio & i Fratelli da Sabbio, 1530 - Octavo (207 x 141 mm), 214 unnumbered leaves, signatures AN8, O4 (last leaf blank), complete. Early 19th-century russia, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, sides with outer border and central lozenge formed with four-line gilt rules, old blue edges. Spine chipped at ends, joints tender, single early marginal annotation on L6v, now faded; a very good copy, the paper clean and fresh. Paton family armorial bookplate (motto "Virtute adepta"). Second edition of Gli Asolani, Bembo's most famous work, first published in 1505. The second edition has significant revisions, "which brought the work into greater linguistic and stylistic conformity with Bembo's watershed contribution to the Italian language question debate (questione della lingua) and the Prose della volgar lingua" (Theodore Cachey, in Marrone, G. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Italian Literary Studies). The edition statement is printed on the verso of the first leaf, which is otherwise blank. The title is a caption at the head of the text; the imprint is taken from the colophon. Uncommon: OCLC gives 12 locations worldwide; auction records show five copies since 1975. BMC Italian p. 80. Not in Adams.
[Bookseller: Peter Harrington. ABA member]